It is known to process metal products by rolling the material on continuous roughing and finishing mills in succession, subsequently cutting the material into lengths and conveying the lengths on a cooling bed, over which they are transported and then coiled or stacked and off-loaded. The production capacity of a mill or a process line is primarily determined by the speed of rolling and the rate at which following stock handling units are able to cope with the rolled stock; which stock handling units have to operate at the same rate as the process line.
A typical rolling mill, for example, comprises a series of sequential rolling stands designed to accept the initial slab or cast strand and to process it without interruption until the final end-product thickness is reached. It is essential that each downstream item of equipment has an operating capacity that is sufficient to handle the incoming material from upstream. This requirement admits of very little flexibility in the mill operation for any given end-product. The rate limiting or capacity limiting element of a rolling mill is the rate or capacity of the slowest or lightest piece of equipment. As a result of the sequential in-line material handling on prior art processing lines, the entire processing line can be no more efficient than the least inefficient member of the line.